Even Nintendo Thinks the iPad is Lame

I’ve always viewed Nintendo and Apple as kindred spirits in their respective worlds, with both concentrating heavily on style, ease of use and fun as core design principles. That’s why to hear Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, scoff at the debut of the iPad is a little bit of a surprise.

“It was a bigger iPod Touch,” Satoru Iwata said of the much anticipated device shown Wednesday by Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs.

“I question whether those features would be enough to get people to buy new machines,”

“There were no surprises for me,” said Iwata.

Now, is he saying this because he actually thinks the iPad is lame (which seems to be the general consensus of the entire internet for the most part) or because he views it as a potential threat to the DS if it catches on? Hmmm.

My opinion? Once the iPad gets a bunch more processing power and starts become more computer-like and less iPhone-like, it could be a great platform for gaming with it’s large screen size and touch capabilities. Sure, it’s way, way more expensive than a DS, but I think it might just have Nintendo on edge.

As for my views on the iPad in general, I think this current iteration is pretty useless, as it’s lacking a host of features to make it truly worth buying. However, I think it’s the first step in a journey toward the eventual replacement of the laptop, and as it starts adding features and fixing issues, it will become more and more appealing to people like me. It is the future in a lot of ways, as in what science fiction movie have you NOT seen someone carrying a “datapad” like that around, but I think it’s still got a long way to go.

[nyt]